FalconLobby is an authorized AddOn for Falcon 4.0 Allied Force created to support the multiplayer experience. FalconLobby retrieves the list of currently active game servers and imports that list into the Falcon "phone book" (the list of game servers shown on the MultiPlayer/Internet screen). This avoids the need to "fat finger" in the IP addresses of the servers and provides a quick way to see what online games are currently available. The list of active game servers is populated from machines running game servers and FalconLobby.

BUG REPORT => see my post later in the thread regarding the handle leak bug and how to work around it until I can fix it.

To get started, check out the FalconLobby Home Page .

NOTES
=====================
- if you haven't tried multiplayer before, be aware that you must forward UDP ports 2934 and 2935 from your DSL/cable modem to your machine. see http://www.portforward.com for more info on how to do this.
- the active games page only shows active servers (multiplayer servers running and in a campaign/TE)
- once installed, you can leave FalconLobby running in the background and when you launch Falcon, your multiplayer/internet tab should show always show all the currently active games
- when setting public info for your server, make sure to prefix your home page with http:// or it won't link properly
- you only need to register your server once and then leave FalconLobby running and your server (when up) should be listed in the active games page
- in order for your server to be considered "up" and be listed on the active games page, you need to have created a multiplayer server and then entered a campaign or TE
- if you have multiple falcon installs (i.e. v1.03 and v1.05 for example) you have to make sure the Falcon registry keys point to the install you're running or FalconLobby won't properly detect the server being up; details on this are provided in this thread

Great utility -- also hosted on our site.

nice job Coder, 'cept, you did forgot the wine...

Actually, I've installed it on my server and my client and I can't see my server in the FalconLobby list.

Not sure if it matters, but I installed it on my client first and from there registered a server etc.

I then copy/pasted the server.ini file with the token number into my servers FalconLobby install.

I can join the server from the AF MP screen, but can't even see it in the FalconLobby list.

Copying the token over as you did should work.

Note that it only adds it to the FalconLobby list once you actually commit into a MP campaign or TE. Just creating the server won't add it to the list.

Also note that by default the update intervals are every 30 secs. i.e., it only uploads your server state and downloads the active servers into your phone book at this rate.

Note that you have to use a full URL when you set your game's public info, i.e. make sure to pre-pend your home page with http:// or else it won't work when someone tries to click it from the list. It should probably handle this anyway, but currently that is what you have to do. I'll manually fix the ones already there, but figured I'd post this to let you know.

Once the FalconLobby prog is installed and configured re: server info submitted, do i have to run FL prog each time, fill in the blanks each time to get my server listed, or does it do so on it's own in the background, without starting FL prog?

Also, when you say,

"it only adds it to the FalconLobby list once you actually commit into a MP campaign or TE",

do you mean, A: Once the server is commited and on-line, or B: Once a human commits into the server?, cause i definately have the server commited already, I can join it, but i can't see it in the FalconLobby list.

by default it will automatically check every 30 secs to see if your server is up and will then upload that to the server so it shows up in the list. make sure you see the green F-16 tray icon as this indicates it is running.

you mentioned copying over the token from another machine. make sure the name *and* token fields are filled in in your settings.ini file. Just putting the token there isn't enough since the code checks for name and token being non-blank before it even tries anything else wrt publishing server state. maybe that is the issue?
A. It doesn't care if anyone has actually joined your server, only that you've created a server and that its in a campaign or TE.

Ok, Coder, please re-read my next post up as I've re-edited to clarify.

Obviously my name and token are there as it is an exact copy and i have tripple checked.

I have started the FL prog, submitted via "Publish my game server", the icon is up and the Campaign is up in MP, and I can join it via another client - I can not see it in the FalconLobby list with the FL prog running on the client. I can see others coming and going.

I also returned the clients setings.ini back to default by deleting the server name and token # from the file.

NO JOY. :p

i don't get anything to show up , i fact the listing that i had in multiplayer before are no longer in the list .

it's a good idea since hyperlobby hasn't happened yet, but this hasn't happened as of yet for me ,

Hardcore, can you please Email me your current settings file (from your server machine) so I can take a look at it? coder1024 at gmail.com

nashash, please do the same. Sorry for the bumps in the road, but this is just the initial release after all :-) hopefully we'll get these issued worked out quickly.

the FalconLobby program must be running in the background in order for your server state to be reported. you must have the green tray icon there and it must be configured with a server name and token. however, you do not need to do anything else once you've registered your server. once you've registered your server, you just leave FalconLobby running in the background all the time and it'll report your server state periodically in the background. If you send me your settings.ini file, perhaps I can take a look at it and see the issue.

ok i got a server to show in Multiplayer, Wolverine's server .

if i'm just using this as a client , do i need to have program running in back ground , once i select view active game servers .?

by leaving it running in the background it should periodically import the list of active servers into Falcon so they show up in the multiplayer/internet page. the idea is to keep your Falcon multiplayer/internet page up to date with the list of active servers.

The "view active game servers" is provided as an informational tool so you can see more info about the servers which are running, i.e. the public info fields.

Sent - lemme know if the attachment went through ok plz and thx...

And, I'm not complaining about this coder, just trying to resolve it for myself, is probably some stupid..... on my part, so no appologies regarding your v.1 release.

Any chance you might work with MV's auto save/restart script for AF servers, to make more user friendly? maybe you's could get together and create an installer with some specific prompts for user details, rewrites where necessary and commits autostart to run with AF and users said settings. Sounds yummy!

It seems to be working...I saw Wolverines server while it was up. This might be the holy grail, once user propagation starts.

Hardcore, no worries, I understand your frustration. Hopefully we'll get you up and running. I got your Email with the attachment and sent back a suggestion for mod'ing your settings.ini file. Check your Email and give that a try.

wrt the scripts thats always a possibility. I know MV had quite a slick setup on his server wrt the automation.

If you're using a regular install of Falcon you can ignore the below. The below only applies if you have multiple installs. For example, if you have both v1.03 and v1.05 installed to different directories and want to use both.

-----

Note that if you have multiple Falcon installations (v1.03 and v1.05 for example), you need to make sure the Falcon registry entries point to the one you're running or FalconLobby won't be able to detect that a server is up and won't report your game to the list of active servers. FalconLobby relies on the registry entries pointing to the install you're currently running.

Specifically, you should have the below registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lead Pursuit\Battlefield Operations\Falcon

This key should contain a baseDir value which should point to your Falcon install directory (i.e. the "Battlefield Operations" directory which is the one which contains FalconAF.exe).

When you install Falcon, the above gets set for you automatically, so as long as you've installed and are running the copy you installed the above isn't an issue.

NOTE: I've discovered a handle leak in the FalconLobby client application. This leak is not in the FalconLobby code directly but in the Windows Internet APIs which I'm using to communicate with the server.

I'm working on a fix for this, but the symptom is that after running the client for about a day the client will be unable to communicate with the server. If you right-click the tray icon and select "View Active Game Servers..." the window will just sit at Loading. And when it tries to update you'll see the wing lights on the tray icon flash for about 10 secs before it gives up.

To avoid this, you need to exit the FalconLobby client app (right-click the tray icon and select Exit) and restart it (double-click the desktop icon created when you installed FalconLobby. I'd suggest doing this once a day or if you encounter the symptom described above.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Hopefully I can figure out how to resolve this ASAP.